A
situation analysis carried out by the professional laboratory body and other
reputable international agencies reveals that some significant progress has
been made in strengthening the capacity of medical laboratory services to
deliver quality services.
This
follows the enactment of the Health Professionals Regulatory Bodies Act 2012
(Act 857) which is helping clean up the system of quackery in insist in best
practices in medical laboratory practice.
But
major challenges still exist in the country, according to the Ghana Association
of Biomedical Laboratory Scientists (GABMLS).
President
of the Association, Prince Sodoke Amuzu, says the inherent challenges are
mainly structural and functional gaps constraining the ability of the
laboratory to deliver quality services.
He
has therefore charged the Ministry of Health to, as a matter of urgency, facilitate
the launch and implementation of the National Health Laboratory Policy documents.
The
documents have been shelved for more than a year after completion by the Ghana
Health Service, initialed by the Centre for Disease Control, USA.
Prince
Amuzu has also called on the ministry to consider the reconstitution of the
Allied Health Professions Regulatory Council Board.
“Certain
people on that Board are not qualified to be there; the number of the
constituents is not up to what the law says it should be – they are seven the
law is asking for nine; and you need to appoint a full-time Registrar,” he
observed.
Speaking
to Luv News at the 2014 Annual Regional Congress and Scientific Conference of
the Association in Kumasi, Prince Amuzu noted that competing priorities in the
health sector have traditionally relegated the laboratory to the low ranking
and starved of resources.
Chief
Executive of the Ashanti regional health directorate, Dr. Alexis Nang-Beifubah,
has committed to liaise with interest groups to clamp down on illegal
laboratory facilities and unlicensed practitioners.
Story
by Kofi Adu Domfeh
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